Of Raptor and Man Chapter 7
Story by JasonVUK on SoFurry
That it for the penultimate chapter. Next chapter is the last (Unless I do an epilogue)
I hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter. Still hoping to possibly get this finished before or around New Years. Parts of this were obviously loosely inspired by Jurassic World: Aftermath. But not 100%. I'm sure you guys can figure out which bits.
The mission had set back after set back after set back. She couldn't think of one mission thus far in her career that had this many problems. She and the others were professionals. Demolition experts, infiltration experts, snipers, sabotage, counter-sabotage, espionage, hacking, you name it one of their members did it and more.
The mission had been simple and they done things like it before; “retrieve X from Y and get to Z to go home and get paid big bucks." Top secret documents out of a safe from an enemy company? Sure no problem, done and done, use the information and anything incriminating to blackmail the CEO into selling his company if not a large portion of it. Bonus.
But everything, good intentions and bad get corrupted by the Curse of Jurassic Park. She wasn't a religious woman, she didn't believe in God or Heaven or Hell, she believed there was only the here and now so make the most of it, but she was now experiencing the curse in person. Man should've never have created monsters that were supposed to be ancient animals from a long dead time. Mixing dinosaurs with the modern age never worked out, something would go wrong at some point. John Hammond's dream never opened it's door and Jurassic World hadn't been free of the curse either.
The Indominus had broken out, destroyed cages, damaged others, released predators a plenty. Some of her team had gotten picked off by large meat eaters, then they'd help up in the ACU building, a small blessing at the time. Then half of the team had been torn apart in this building so close to the end, and now “Dennis" was dead, “Tom" was injured, possibly bleeding to death, only she and “Craig" were left alive and in good health. All that stood between them and their goal were raptors.
Well not just raptors. She mentally fumed. No one had told her about the experiments they were conducting here. No one told them about cloaking raptors that stalked you like “The Predator" ready to pounce when you were least expecting ready to rend your bones from your body.
A few had nearly gotten her and Craig already while they searched for their target. Like mini-Indominus Rexes, lots of them, their ability to stealth gave them an extra edge. Making the two mercenaries ever more so vigilant.
“We need to get into the vault; inside we need to put in the passcode to unlock the hidden compartment. That is where we'll find our target." Alice has once told her comrades before everything had started falling to pieces.
At the time they'd been so confidant, an easy in out smash and grab, easy peasy.
She wished she were that confidant now.
Currently the pair were in the research wing of the facility, a far cry from what was showed to the tourists. This was all the sketchy shit came from. They were carefully manoeuvring around desks and equipment to get to where they were needed, the vault, when she felt Craig tap her shoulder getting her attention. Glancing at him she noticed him focussing on something out of her line of sight.
“Raptor?" she whispered.
He nodded. “Right in our way." He whispered back.
'Fuck' she cursed mentally, firing off a shot was last option, they were running low on ammo. “We need to lure it away." She whispered.
Craig nodded silently, glancing around just for a second before looking at the desk not too far from them. Wordlessly he moved as swiftly yet quietly as he could, ensuring to keep his head down, he ducked down quickly behind it, glancing towards Alice who had moved to his previous position, keeping an eye on the raptor. She motioned to him with her hand, two fingers indicating to her right, his left, before she had a chance to do anything else he saw the black raptor move across the room, sniffing at the air before shrieking, there was no doubt it had their scent. It would find them eventually. They had to press forward. Craig disconnected the computer's monitor from the desktop and keyboard, then using a pair of pliers snipped at the power cable, wincing as the cable was cut with a quiet 'snip'. With fear rising he glanced out from his cover, the raptor was still searching, its head low, sniffing around. He exhaled with relief then picked up the monitor, then quickly he raised himself up and threw the monitor as hard as he could further back into the room, dropping down behind cover once it left his hands. He didn't know what happened, but he heard an audible crash followed by an inquisitive barking of the raptor, its feet pounded against the floor as it moved further into the room to investigate the noise.
Alice gave the signal and the pair moved quickly, keeping themselves low they moved from their respective covers and towards the direction of the door when they heard an audible chitter from behind.
Craig glanced back seeing another raptor staring right at them, black like the other with different coloured stripes, this one for one reason or another had a stump of a left arm. The raptor shrieked and charged at them, Craig rolling onto his back and fired a short burst at the raptor, the creature fell to the ground, Craig rolled back onto his front rushing to get to his feet watching as Alice rushed pass the doors, he could hear the first raptor charging towards him, as he ran for the doors, opening them and closing them behind just as the raptor slammed into them with such strength he and Alice both thought the doors would come off their hinges.
“Lock it!" she ordered quickly.
Craig locked the door behind them leaving the raptor to pound and barge into the doors.
With Craig's weapon trained on the door Alice turned around, noting immediately the difference in the room. “I think we made it." She announced as her eyes focussed on the solid bank vault style doors, beside it a terminal.
“That's great, hurry up and open the door." Craig said in a hurried manner, “we've really stirred the hornet's nest."
Heavier and more frequent banging came from the doors. Craig could spy more dark-raptors coming out from the wood work, how many of these freaks had been made?
Noticing their immediate danger Alice rushed to the door's terminal and booted it up. “Come on, come on, come on." She muttered anxiously as it started up.
“Alice." Craig said with increasing worry in his voice, backing up further into the room and away from the door, his rifle never leaving the doors which shook and rocked more and more violently as the raptors continued to pound against it trying to break their way in.
“Hold on, hold on!" Alice started typing on the terminal, which was now asking for a passcode. 'Shit.' She thought then looked at her wrist communicator. Back up after back up after back up. The initial plan was for their primary hacker to open the doors ahead of time to make things quicker, failing that Dennis would open the door remotely, both had failed, luckily Dennis had been able to get the codes before he died. Going through the text logs she brought up the codes given to her and started to type them in.
“Alice!" Craig called back to her louder, panic rising.
“Hang on!" She called back louder.
The doors bulged, the frames started to break, the heavy-duty hinges started to twist and bend, the raptors cries could be heard much louder now.
First code accepted the terminal asked for another which Alice quickly inputted. The doors to the room groaned, the barging of the raptors grew more violent. The terminal asked for the third and final code.
“ALICE!" Craig shouted.
“HANG ON!" she screamed back, inputting the code. Accepted the large vault door began to move, it's many segments retracting as it started to unlock.
“Come to the door, come on!" Alice ordered as she made her way around the door as it's large steel locks continued to retract.
Craig glanced back and rushed towards her. He just made it to her when the doors behind him crashed to the floor with one raptor falling to the ground. The vault door released its final lock with a loud hiss. He spun around just as the raptors started pouring into the room and rushed towards them. Alice pulled on the large door as Craig started to fire at the rushing beasts.
“COME ON GET IN!" Alice screamed at him. His eyes opened wide, as a raptor slammed into him and started clawing and biting at what it could, using his rifle to keep the beast's jaws away, struggling with the beast he quickly drew his sidearm and fired at the beast's chest then pushed it away into oncoming raptors, he turned then dived towards the opening, minutely avoiding being caught by another raptor. With a cry Alice grabbed the door's handle and pulled it closed behind her, nearly succeeding before another raptor pushed its head into the way blocking the lock. “NO, NO NO!" she cried and tried to pull harder, she could see other raptors trying to get their heads into the door's way, trying to pull it open. She pulled on the door handle with one hand and drew her pistol with the other, firing at the raptor's exposed chest, the creature shrieked out and stumbled back knocking others out of the way allowing her to slam the door shut.
Alice's body trembled with fear, she could hear Craig from behind her groaning crying in pain, and the raptors' shrieking in anger as they started to pound on the door. Beside Alice she spied another terminal with a shaky hand she turned it on her eyes immediately going to the “door lock" option. Pressing it, she heard the heavy steel hydraulics locks of the door start to move again, startling the raptors. With a shuddering breath Alice pried her fingers from the door's handle and fell back onto the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugged them.
Turning around she saw Craig clutching his leg in agony with blood forming under his hands and dripping to the floor, the raptor had clawed at his leg as he avoided it.
“Shit." She cursed and looked around. There was no medical kit in here. Why would there be? “We need to take your shirt off. Come on help me!" She ordered as he laid Craig on his back hastily unstrapping his tactical vest the straps and magazines for the rifle had been pierced and torn by the raptors claws rendering them useless. Grasping as his top she tore it from his body then tore it some more into strips. “This is gonna fucking hurt." She warned before immediately tying the strips of torn t-shirt around his wound. Craig cried out louder his body shaking from the pain. Once the first was tied Alice quickly used another piece then another until she was sure the wound had enough pressure on it.
The two were quiet for several minutes the only sound other hand their heavy breaths were the raptor's barking and shrieking outside and slamming their bodies against the reinforced vault door.
“Almost got us that time." Craig gasped out between laboured breaths.
“Almost got you." Alice panted heavily.
“Leave me here a sec, I'll be," he gulped and panted heavily for a few seconds, “I'll be okay."
Alice nodded dumbly then looked about, as told this place was simply a front for where their target was. Standing up shakily, she checked her rifle. She only had a few shots left and none spare on her person. She looked about then trudged further into the vault, her legs aching her body begging for a respite, but there was no chance of that, they had to complete the mission then get the hell out of there, shit, they still needed to call for a damned chopper and they needed to deal with Grady and his Raptors alongside these dark raptors. So much work still had to be done. Shaking her head she looked around the vault, there was a large table on the far left, multiple shelves and filing cabinets otherwise nothing of great importance.
Intel said to press a hidden button to unlock the true vault, the button was hidden in one of the cabinets, she started her search from one end of the room, pulling shelves out of the cabinets to find the damned button.
“You," Craig's voice croaked after a while, “you find it yet?"
“Not yet." Alice replied glumly. She paused suddenly noticing something, it was quiet. Too quiet. “Craig?" she called.
“Yeah?" he called back, not yet having moved from where he lay.
“It's quiet."
The pair went quiet and simply listened, it was quiet. The raptors weren't banging on the door, weren't screeching or shrieking or barking or anything. It was quiet. The air was still.
Alice didn't know whether that was a good sign or not and decided the best course of action was to continue her search. They had to get out of there.
Tom opened his eyes as he heard a loud mechanical beeping, he didn't even realise he fell asleep.
Looking about he found he was about to stop at the research area where Craig and Alice were. Glancing down at himself Tom found his wounds had at least stopped bleeding, but they still hurt like a real bastard. Pushing himself up out of his seat he limped out of the tram, he considered destroying the console to stop Grady, but they'd need it to get out of there. Besides they could take him, the three of them against Grady and his raptors. Tom exhaled shakily and looked about the place, it was clean, pristine, untouched by gore or the madness that'd consumed the island.
He lift his arm and tapped on his communicator.
{I'm here, sitrep.}
Tom checked his shotgun as he waited for a reply, weapon loaded and chambered, the stock now extended for easier firing. He was ready. His communicator beeped from a reply from Alice, her voice came from the device.
“We've reached our target location, but we're trapped inside, raptors are all over the place. Craig's injured and we're nearly out of munitions." Alice replied then grunted.
Tom cursed under his breath, shit was going from bad to worse. Behind him the train hummed to life as it started to pull away from the station.
“Grady's calling the tram, what should I do?" Tom asked as he steadied his breathing.
“I don't know." Alice exhaled miserably. “This mission's fucked." She muttered just loud enough for Tom to hear. “Okay look! Coming to us is a suicide mission, me and Craig barely made it here together and the rest of the guys got torn apart. Stay put for now, try and hide and we'll come up with a plan." Alice ordered.
“Alright, but what if Grady shows up?" Tom asked with a growl in his voice.
“If you can take him and the raptors all at once do it, if not leave them." Alice replied. “If nothing else they'll make for a good distraction."
“Alright. But I need first aid, bad. You didn't see any did ya?" Tom asked with a grimace as he started walking further into the room.
“Didn't get chance, sorry. I wouldn't stray too far in here though, the raptors have gone, they could be anywhere." Alice warned him.
“Don't worry, I won't go far. Tom out." He cut the connection walked slowly, trying not to aggravate his wounds. He was weak, he could feel it, moving around hurt, being awake hurt, he needed to clean himself up. Then he'd need to hunker down and wait and he hated waiting.
She hated waiting like this.
Prey had escaped.
Dark-Ones had fled, their scent going with them. She could not track them.
She hated all of this.
But Alpha had told them to wait, so she would wait.
Alpha had touched alpha-kind thing and noises were made, as alpha-kind things usually did.
Blue huffed irritably, as she lay on her belly. The ache in her leg far from her mind, she'd almost forgotten about it if not for the slight twinge of pain as she laid down, she turned her head and sniffed at her leg, it didn't hurt so bad anymore, strange to think the fight with the ugly-ones was only earlier that light-time. She heard Alpha walked towards and sit down beside her, turning her full attention to him as a good Beta should. He started talking to her in his Alpha-speak, he spoke her given-name but she understood little else, she could however understand his tone, he wasn't happy, tired perhaps. Over the years she'd come to understand Alpha's tone of speak. She understood when he was happy, angry, scared (which was rare) and even sad. She shuffled herself closer to him as he continued to speak then lay her head upon his lap. Alpha pauses and looks to her, his mouth changes, curling upwards, he is happy and that is good. He lays a hand on her head and starts to stroke along her head and neck, the sensation is soothing. Blue looks up at him and remains silent as he continues to speak, his face changing in different ways, emoting in ways she understood. She saw frustration, anger, annoyance, sadness, joy, a mix of sad and joy.
All will be well Alpha, she chirped to him softly. She would make it so.
Alpha exhaled sharply then went quiet, looking around slowly.
Why we wait eldest-sister? Charlie barked at her.
Alpha has told us to do so. That's why! Blue chittered back.
Why don't we go back to nest? Charlie asked with a tilt of her head.
Alpha-kind must die! Echo shrieked angrily.
She's right. They have hurt Alpha, pack defends pack. Bad Alpha-Kind must die. Blue snarled angrily.
They why do we not chase them now? Echo snarled back.
Alpha commands we wait! Blue snapped.
But why? Delta chittered. Alpha-Kind has attacked him, why does he not hunt them?
Agreed, why do we wait? Echo snarled.
Because Alpha is smart! Alpha will know what to do! Alpha has plan, I am sure of it, and now his plan is for pack to wait. SO we WAIT! Blue barked angrily, shrieking at her sisters.
Alpha was up immediately, standing tall despite his injury, snapped at the pack, asserting his dominance, calming the pack. He must know they were agitated, angry, ready for the hunt. Blue knew he knew.
Good Alpha. She thought. Assert dominance. Keep pack in line.
Alpha was barking orders at them, anger and strength in his tone.
They didn't know his words but understood his commands; Pack calm and waits. Wait.
Echo snarled in frustration and Alpha chided her immediately. Calm! Calm and wait! Calm!
Echo huffed with frustration then walked off. It was likely for the best, she needed to calm down.
Alpha looked between them all, watching as the pack calmed. With a exhale of frustration and calming he sat back down with his back leant up against an alpha-kind construction.
Blue snorted through her nose then shuffled herself closer to Alpha once more and lay her head upon his lap.
Good girl. Alpha whispered his hands lay across her head and started to stroke down her neck, moving back to her head then back down her neck, repeating the soothing action over and over and a slow gentle pace as he continued to utter “good girl" to her.
Blue exhaled softly, her eyes staying focussed on Alpha. She knew they were in for a fight. Hunting down the bad Alpha-kind, they had Alpha-kind's loud noise makers. Pack would have to fight smart, fight quickly. Put down the bad Alpha-kind then go back to nest. She just hoped the storm was gone when they left.
Stage 1 Proto-Indo-raptor.
That is what the file said.
Alice had found the button. Upon pressing it the wall in the vault had come open revealing a secret room with more computers, a cooling system and a large DNA container in the centre. That is what they were here for, the DNA of the Indominus Rex and all of Doctor Wu's notes, the DNA vial labelled “Velociraptor IBRIS 001" upon reading the file about the vial, revealed it to be one of Owen's raptors, one he'd named “Blue" file said the raptor was smart, very smart, listened to commands, her specific DNA sequence was needed. Most likely for what else she found. Another vial and another file, all about these prototypes.
From what Alice read these things, the black-raptors were a failed experiment, trying to evolve the Indominus Rex into something smaller, but vastly more lethal. But the process had many failure, their genetics wouldn't hold together properly in the majority of cases. Of all the eggs they'd made over 50% died in their eggs, 20% of the remaining 50% were born with physical defects, enlarged head, too small a head, tail too short, one leg, malformed legs, malformed arms, many of those didn't live long. There was only a small 5% that were born physically okay but all of them had a growth deficiency making them smaller than most other species of their genome, however despite all the setbacks the results were noteworthy.
Alice grimaced. Her men were dead because of this shit. Because of these vials and the info. The computer was disconnected from the mainframe which is why they couldn't simply hack into it and take what the needed, the information on the DNA was also not down on any computers.
There had been twenty alive P-I-Rs reported before Jurassic World shut down. Alice winced, they'd killed some, how many more were left? Fifteen maybe?
Regardless, they now had what they came for and it was time to leave. Sending the command for the DNA container to open, the machine complied revealing the three cylinders of DNA, additionally the inserted a thumb drive into the device and moved all the information from the console to the drive. Once the files had been successfully moved and the thumb drive removed Alice retrieved a cooled air-tight canister from her person then opened it eliciting a hiss from the device.
“Craig, I got what we came for it's time to get the fuck off this island." She called to her comrade.
“Thank fuck for that." The man grimaced, grunting as he pushed himself to his feet, his wound had stopped bleeding, for now, he knew he'd need better medical attention later, but for now, he'd survive. Limping painfully towards Alice the big man looked around the room properly for the first time. “How're we going to get out of here?"
Alice looked back towards the door, there was no way they'd get back the way they came not with Craig injured and their rifle ammo all but depleted. They'd need to find a way to sneak out.
Looking about she noticed the vent in the ceiling of the room. That could work.
“Craig if you can help me move stuff so we can climb out of here." She ordered as rushed across the room and started to pull tables across.
Craig looked at her curiously, then up to the ceiling and quickly realised her plan. With strain and effort the tall muscular man aided her is moving what furniture there was in the room on top of one another. Soon enough, cabinets and tables were stacked on top of one another as a haphazard manner, but it was tall enough to the vent above them.
“I'll go first." He said before eyeing the construction, he reached to the side of his vest and removed the last rifle magazine from his person and passed it to Alice. “Last mag, make it count." He said before cautiously climbing the furniture, coming to the vent. With a monumental strike the vent shuddered violently, with another blow then followed by another the vent came loose and was quickly pulled out of the way by Craig. “Up we go." The man muttered before pulling himself into the vent, the metal groaning from his weight. He grimaced as he banged his leg, but bit down a cry of pain. He didn't want to alert anything to their presence.
“It's sturdy, come on up." He called back to Alice, who quickly followed him.
Owen had been sat quietly, the raptors mulling about as they all waited. His plan was insane, but it had to happen this way. The raptors had been agitated earlier, likely bored, all riled up for a fight, for a hunt and he'd have them wait without a clear target in front of them, but Blue as always had his back and for that he was thankful. His opened his eyes and looked down to the raptor resting her head on his lap, his hand stroking from her head down her neck on autopilot in a slow and soothing manner that she seemed to be enjoying. He enjoyed it too if he spoke truthfully.
Suddenly Blue lifted her head from his lap, her eyes shooting open and peered down the tram's railway, looking about Owen noticed all of the raptors were doing the same thing, all staring down the darkened tunnel. They must be hearing the tram on it's way back, he realised. Turning his attention down the darkened tunnel after a few more seconds his ears too caught the sound.
The girls started to hiss and growl as the sound got louder, the tram grew nearer. Blue stood up from her comfortable position and snarled, baring her teeth and claws at the unseen threat.
Owen stood up, his hands raised. “Girls! Eyes on me!" Back to training. Back to training Owen. He thought to himself. “Blue, Charlie, Delta, Echo! Eyes! On! Me!" he said louder.
The girls hesitated but gave him their attention. “It's okay! It's okay! Calm! Calm! Calm." He said his voice getting softer but no less commanding.
Slowly the raptors calmed, lips covered teeth, claws relaxed, but still they stood alert, awaiting whatever was coming from the darkness.
Owen turned, swinging his lever-rifle from his shoulder and bringing it into his hands.
The tram appeared through the darkened tunnel and slowed before coming to a stop in front of them, the doors opened immediately.
“Girls! Follow!" He ordered and walked towards the tram doors. “Come on." They didn't move. He expected this. “It's okay." He said softly, their eyes still focussed on him. “It's okay, follow me." He urged them closer, but still they did not move, hesitant to follow him. He locked his eyes with Charlie, she'd always been the most curious of the four of them. “Charlie! Come here girl." The young raptor squawked with surprise, her eyes blinking rapidly.
Blue looked to Charlie, chirping at her then looked back to Owen, her eyes drifting over the tram once more. Hesitantly Charlie stepped forward, approaching him as he softly urged her on.
“Good girl, come on, come on, good girl Charlie." Owen softly urged her along.
The raptor stepped closer, and closer and closer she passed by Blue then towards Owen by the tram, she hesitated at the last moment, sniffing at the inside, she snarled briefly then chirped with worry.
Owen stepped back, urging her inside further his tone soft and smooth, trying to come off as calm. “It's okay girl in you come, come on in Charlie."
Hesitantly Charlie pressed her left foot in then froze. Nothing happened for a moment. The other raptors watched on with similar wide-eyed stares. Charlie looked about the inside of the tram then stepped in further slowly.
Once fully inside Charlie looked about as Owen placed his hands on her and gave her an affectionate rub and nuzzle to which Charlie responded positively to. She then looked to her sisters and barked to them, as if confirming everything was safe, she sniffed at the inside of the tram then started to explore the small space.
Not to be outdone Blue starting creeping closer, looking at the tram with caution before focussing on Owen. He smiled and beckoned his girl in.
His girl.
Owen chuckled to himself but smiled. “Come on Blue, you got this. You've got this." He kept his focus solely on the blue-stripped raptor as she stared into his all the while walking closer. Once inside she immediately pressed herself to Owen inhaling his scent deeply and chittering sweetly in his ear. “You did great Blue!" Owen rubbed his hand along her flanks while giving her as much praise as he could. “My big smart girl! Great work!"
Once she was pulled herself away Owen had a chance to look to the last two raptors: Delta and Echo.
“Come on girls, you can do it. Come on." Owen urged them closer.
Likely from the fact they watched their Beta and the youngest girl come into the Tram, they seemed somewhat less hesitant, though only somewhat. With Echo pushing Delta ahead with her head the two raptors came closer. Once inside they both received their praises from their Alpha, caring strokes down their neck and gentle pats on their sides.
With all four raptors in the tram Owen makes his way to the front, shimmying past Blue and squeezing past Charlie whose nose was buried in a seat that was stained in blood. Likely Tom's, Owen realised.
Owen looked at the blood stain then to Charlie then to the others as they sniffed around the cramped tram. Owen turned around to the controls and pressed the button for the research facility. With a hiss the tram's doors closed. Blue noticed then shrieking loudly at the doors alerting her sisters who now realised they were trapped. Owen needed to get them to calm down and fast! Especially as the tram started moving.
He watched as Echo tried slamming her side against the windows, watching the resistant glass start to crack.
“GIRLS! GIRLS EYES ON ME! EYES ON ME!" he yelled as loud as he could. “GIRLS! EYES! ON! ME!"
The tram was moving well and truly now as it picked up to it's maximum speed. Suddenly a loud raptor shrieked cried out from within the tram, so loud in fact it caused Owen to wince and grimace. Blue stood beside her alpha, likely confused, perhaps scared but stood by him. The other girls, still panicked by what was going on, turned their attentions to their alpha and beta, Charlie was still growling quietly like a whimper, Echo's lip were still peeled back with a snarl, Delta looked the most freaked out, Blue looked to her sisters then turned to look at Owen. Owen looked Blue in the eyes.
“Good job girl, good job." He spoke softly, his tone still tight and commanding. Owen then looked the others in the eyes, going between them after a several seconds of eye contact. “It's okay!" he said quietly. “It's okay girls. Calm down. Calm down. Safe. Pack safe. Calm."
The girls seemed to calm down, but Owen knew it wouldn't last forever. He could imagine it from their point of view, trapped in a cage that moved at a very fast speed to someplace unknown. He'd was lucky Blue was able to keep them in check. If they lost their nerve and lashed out he was done for.
Echo, Delta and Charlie huddled together for comfort while Blue stuck near Owen. He turned around once they'd settled and looked forward to the seemingly endless tunnel. He wasn't stupid however, he knew there was all the possibility of the three mercs planning an ambush once the train arrived, and they'd had ample time to construct one while he and the girls had been waiting for the tram, even more so now with the tram being a loud indicator of their arrival, with such little space to hide there was a real chance they'd be torn to shreds in gunfire. He had to think of a way to avoid that. He looked down to the console before him then up to the endless tunnel. He'd think of something. He had to.
Craig stared down through the vent at the gathering of dark-raptors. They'd come here after hearing him shuffling around in the vents, they started to sniff around barking and shrieking at one another.
“They know we're here." Alice whispered slowly behind him.
Craig could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead, splashing against the metal vent quietly, but to him ever impact sounded as loud as thunder in his ears, he could only imagine the raptors would eventually hear it turn their attention skyward to the vent and find them.
“Craig, move." She whispered as she pushed on his bottom.
“I can't." he whispered back in fear, pushing back against her hand. He didn't want to move, didn't want to get caught. Didn't want to die. Not like the others, not like Dennis, not like … wait … “Tom." He whispered back after a moment of genius.
Alice's eyes opened wide then brought her wrist device close to her face, her device was on silent, had been since they'd entered the vents. She sent a message to Tom.
{Trapped in vents, raptors about, need distraction.}
As they waited for a reply Craig continued to stare down at the raptors, praying to any God that would listen that his breathing was quiet, that his fear couldn't be smelt, that the drumming of his sweat on metal wouldn't give them away.
Another raptor appeared, one a bit larger one than the rest, it's body twitched and spasmed uncontrollably. The others barked at it and chittered while stepping out of its way like the sea parted for Moses. This must have been a higher ranking raptor a Beta or even the big boss itself. Whatever it was this Leader turned its head skywards. Its eyes looked about the ceiling in an almost curious manner.
'It's smarter.' Craig internally panicked.
The Leader's gaze was about to fall upon Craig when several gunshots rang out elsewhere followed by a loud crash and the shattering of glass. The raptors turned their attention towards the noise, then hastily rushed towards it, hoping for an easy meal.
“Thank god." Alice muttered, “alright keep going."
Craig nodded and continued moving through the vents. They were closing in on the tram station, they were so close now.
Tom's plan was simple as it was clever. The raptors were a problem, they needed to be dealt with one way or another, he could trap some of them in the security terminal near the tram station, it's glass windows were covered with a metal shutter and the metal door had large steel locks. If they broke out they'd be easy to gun down afterwards. Tom moved further into the facility and found one of his guys, torn apart, barely anything left, but the wrist communicator was operational and most importantly the body had been one of their explosive guys, he'd found a single fragmentation grenade still on the vest. Perfect. Everything was lining up perfectly.
Taking the grenade and securing to his person Tom grabbed the body, unconcerned for the gore, and slowly dragged the carcass from its final resting place to the inside the security checkpoint and dropped it onto a chair. He'd swallowed some bile as the spine finally broke and the legs came apart from the rest of the body slumping against Tom as the torso came to rest in the chair.
With a muttered curse he'd repositioned the legs. Then set the wrist communicator's volume to max.
Drawing his pistol he fired some shot into the nearest vending machine shattering the glass, then knocked the machine over. He swallowed a cry of agony as he disturbed his wounds, some of them starting to bleed once again.
'Come on lad! COME ON!' He mentally cried as he pushed himself onwards. Those freakish raptors would be there soon and he needed to get ready, hide somewhere close but out of the way. The plan was simple, lure the raptors in with the communicator, hoping the max volume would cover his own voice, if not the smell of blood would draw them in go around to the front, throw in the grenade and lock the door. Then BOOM.
Tom put the communicator close to his mouth.
“Here I am ya CUNTS! Come and get some! Hundred percent pure Australian beef! COME ON!" He shouted into the device, his voice coming loudly from the corpse's device.
His calls were quickly answered. He heard the rapid and heavy thudding of feet against the ground and claws scratching against marble.
From his position he saw three raptors storm into the area, sniffing and snarling about looking for their prey, these things looked pretty fucked up.
'Stupid fuckin' lizards.' Tom thought with a manic grin on his face. “Come on in babies, Tommy's right here! Hello babies!"
The communicator echoed his voice loudly gaining the raptors' attentions. The followed the sound, their noses following the scent of blood. They snarled as they rushed into the room with the corpse. Tom immediately sprung into action, pushing down the pain of his wounds best as he could and unpinned the grenade, without looking inside the room he tossed the grenade inside. The raptors realising their prey wasn't worth a snack and turned to the sound of the door shutting behind them as Tom locked the door.
Bracing himself against it he heard the raptors shriek loudly before the grenade detonated, the room shook, the glass inside shattered there was a ringing in Tom's ears, but he couldn't hear anything else.
Perfect.
He looked up and through the shattered window and inside the room, seeing the blow apart bodies of the raptors and the ruined equipment inside.
“YES! I FUCKIN' GOT YA!" He laughed and cheered.
His blood ran cold when he heard something from behind, a slow but consistent sound of something hard tapping against the marble floor the sound only picking up as he spun around, bringing shotgun up to his unwounded shoulder.
Another of the dark raptors shrieked as it rushed him, Tom had only a moment to make note of its malformed head before he pulled the trigger and the malformed raptor dropped to the floor its body sliding several feet before coming to a stop.
Tom grimaced as the recoil from the weapon irritated his wounds. He looked around, the pain in his body starting to flare up once more despite his best efforts to push it down, to try and ignore it.
'Where the fuck are they?' he couldn't help but think. 'How many more of these fuckin' things are there?'
Panic swept through Tom, adrenaline coursing through his veins. Where else were these things? Where could they be hiding? How many more were there? Those questions and more swirled around in his mind like a tornado. Tom knew his blood loss would eventually get to him, he already felt weak and pushing himself wasn't helping his case. There was a high chance he'd crash, lose consciousness and if he did, he was dead. Tom tried to control his breathing, to gain control of himself, but her nerves were shot, his patience was gone, his temper was flaring. He wanted fucking out of there!
“Tom." He heard a whisper from above.
Crying out in surprise he raised his gun in panic. His wild eyes wide with terror.
“Calm down! It's us!" Came Alice's voice.
Tom exhaled sharply. “I near … blew your fuckin' head off!" He started to yell only to turn into a whisper.
“Craig's hurt, help us get down." Alice ordered.
“I can't, those fuckin' things are here somewhere!" Tom snapped back. “Move back and I'll blow a hole in the vent you try and climb down."
“Alright, but on my mark only, got it?" Alice replied hastily.
“Right, right." Tom looked about his area once more, gun at the ready. Why weren't these things charging?
Instinctively Tom loaded another shell into the gun and waited. He heard light rummaging around above him from Alice and Craig moving about, but his hearing zeroed in on the familiar tapping sound. The raptors were moving, they were there somewhere, somewhere close enough to hear them. Why weren't they charging? Why weren't they attacking?
“Alright, shoot the vent." Alice ordered.
Tom didn't waste time aiming towards where the vent panel was and fired twice at it, the loud retort of the shotgun causing Alice and Craig to wince inside the vent.
Tom quickly turned his weapon back towards the room, scanning all about. Why hadn't they attacked? He'd all but given them an opening. What were they waiting for?
“Hang on, I'm coming down first." Alice called quietly, kicking the damaged vent cover till it fell from its place and hit the floor loudly. Alice carefully climbed out, dangling her legs out the gap and slowly lowered herself down until she was hanging from the vent by her hands. With but a few short feet to drop she let go landing gracefully on her feet. “Alright Craig your turn, be careful with your leg."
“Don't have to tell me twice." He muttered in reply.
Copying Alice, Craig hung his legs out of the vent first then slowly lowered himself out till he hung from his arms. Alice was close to him as she watched.
“Drop down, I'll catch you." She joked.
“Very funny." He grunted and dropped, keeping his bad leg from taking the brunt of the force. As he landed Alice did aid him in his recovery. “Thanks."
“If you two are done, we need an escape plan and need it right now, we ain't alone." Tom growled out.
Alice raised her rifle as Craig drew his large sidearm, a large calibre revolver.
Suddenly they heard their salvation. The tram was coming, it was close by.
“Escape plan, form a perimeter blow fucking holes in the tram, kill Grady and his raptors then we get the fuck out of here." Alice replied as she backed up towards where the Tram would arrive.
Tom grinned, finally, pay back.
“Keep your eyes out for those other things." Tom said to Craig who nodded and kept his ground, large handgun in his grasp.
Tom and Alice quickly chose their positions. Rifle and shotgun shouldered. The tram grew closer, grew louder. Craig awaited any sign of those dark raptors, he could hear the tapping of their large toe claw on the ground, but they had to appear. Were these things messing with them?
The tram appeared in the station and the area became loud with gunfire. Alice and Tom aimed high firing their weapons into the Tram, glass smashed bullets and buckshot tore through the light-weight material of the tram. Tom reloaded his weapon and fired several more rounds of buckshot into the tram before it had a chance to stop. Alice reloaded with the final magazine Craig gave to her and unloaded it into the vehicle in rapid succession.
The tram slowed to a stop chiming pleasantly at is arrived almost comically given its appearance, there was scarcely anywhere that hadn't been blow apart by gunfire.
'Fuckin' gotcha.' Tom mentally cried victorious, a sadistic grin on his face.
The room was quiet.
Though only for a few moments as tapping of claws was heard once more, louder and more numerous, alongside the hissing and mad shrieking of raptors.
Dropping her rifle Alice drew her Glock pistol and aimed down further into the room moments before several dark-raptors charged into the tram station.